Distance education course for in-service high school physics teachers
There is a two-semester distance education version of Matter & Interactions for in-service high school physics teachers, which offers graduate credit through NCSU (3 credit hours per semester). The purpose of these courses is not to train teachers to offer this university-level curriculum in high school (although some teachers do offer Matter & Interactions as a second-year physics course). Rather, the goal is to give teachers a 20th-century perspective on the introductory-level physics that they teach. Teachers have expressed high satisfaction with the courses.
PY 581 (mechanics) is currently offered every spring, starting around
January 10.
PY 582 (E&M) is currently offered every fall, starting around August 20.
It is best to take mechanics before E&M, but some teachers with particularly strong physics backgrounds and good calculus skills have taken the courses in the other sequence.
Information
For how to register, and testimonials from teachers who have taken the course, go to NCSU's Science House
A video about PY 581/582
Teacher reflections on the course: mechanics (pdf) and E&M (pdf)
An article (pdf) about the course, presented at the conference on Multimedia in Physics Teaching and Learning in Udine, Italy, September 2009
A PowerPoint poster about the course
